Christianity As Mystical Fact

Robert Green Ingersoll (18331899), was an Illinois lawyer, a
colonel in the Civil War, attorney general of Illinois, and a
nationally-known political speaker. His public addresses attacking
the Bible and Christianity destroyed his political career, and his
reputation as a speaker was based on his brilliant oratory rather
than clear logic. Ingersoll's writings and lectures were published
posthumously in 12 volumes, New York, 1902.

Charles Robert Darwin (18091882), English naturalist, whose voyage
on the Beagle to the Southern Seas, recorded in his Journal of
a Naturalist (1837) prepared the way for his famous work On the Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Presentation of Favored
Races in the Struggle for Life, published November 24, 1859. Next in
importance among his books, The Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication, appeared in 1868. The Descent of Man, published
in 1871, dealt with the origin of man and his history in the
light of The Origin of the Species.

Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (18341919), German biologist, originally
a physician in Berlin, became Privatdozent at Jena, afterward
extraordinary professor of comparative anatomy, later professor of
zoology, a chair established for him at Jena. This position he occupied
for 43 years with intervals for zoological travels to various parts of
the world. When Darwin's Origin of the Species appeared in 1859, Haeckel
was deeply influenced by it, so that he became the apostle of Darwinism
in Germany. Among his famous books were General Morphology (1866),
Natural History of Creation (1867) and Die Weltraetsel (1899),
English title, The Riddle of the Universe (1901). By his 60th birthday
he had published 42 works of some 13,000 pages, plus many monographs. Rudolf
Steiner knew Ernest Haeckel personally, and in his autobiography,
Chapter 15, Steiner recorded a very perceptive impression of the great
scientist.

Sir Charles Lyell (17971875), British geologist, was the
author of the famous Principles of Geology, An Attempt to Explain
the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes Now
in Operation (Vol. 1, 1830; Vol. II, 1832). His Elements of Geology
and his Antiquity of Man appeared in 1838 and 1863 respectively. His
life-work, which included journeys to the United States and Canada,
the Scandinavian countries, Sicily, Madiera, Teneriffe and elsewhere,
resulted in the advancement of modern geology. On the occasion of the
observance of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lyell, Rudolf
Steiner wrote an appreciative article on his work which was published
in Das Magazin für Litteratur, Berlin, November 27, 1897. Steiner
also made a number of references to Lyell's work in his lectures
(19001924).

Aeschylus was acquitted by the Areopagus on a charge of revealing
the Eleusinian Mysteries. When charged with betraying the Mysteries,
he replied, I said the first thing which occurred to me. Cf.
Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea III, 1. Clement of Alexandria,
Stromata II, 14: Aeschylus, who divulged the Mysteries on the stage,
was acquitted when being tried in the Areopagus on his showing that
he had not been initiated.

The anonymous epigram reads: Do not be in too great a hurry to
get to the end of Heraclitus the Ephesian's book: the path is hard
to travel. Obscurity is there, and darkness devoid of light. But if
an initiate be your guide, the path shines brighter than sunlight.
Anth. Pal. Book IX, 540 (Cf. also Diogenes Laertius IX, 16).

Heraclitus lays down his book ceremonially in the temple of
Artemis. So some people say, he has purposely written it obscurely,
so that only the able would approach it. (Cf. Kranz: Vorsokratische
Denker, p. 84.)

Plato, Cratylus 400 BC: ... some say it (the body) is the tomb
of the soul, their notion being that the soul is buried in the present
life. The Greek words for body and tomb suggest a mystical
similarity between the two. This was a part of the Orphic doctrine.

Philo of Alexandria, De Profugis, I, 562. Philo or otherwise
known as Philo Judaeus, a Jewish philosopher, was born at Alexandria
in Egypt, c. 10 B.C., where he spent most of his life. In the year
40 A.D., he headed a Jewish embassy to Rome to petition the Emperor
Gaius to refrain from requiring homage from the Jews as a divinity.
Eusebius and other Church Fathers advanced a tradition that in Rome
Philo met St. Peter, but this is not confirmed. Philo was the most
important representative of Hellenistic Judaism, and his many writings
extant are brilliant expositions of the Mosaic law and the Jewish religion.

Philo, Legum allegoriarum, Allegorical Interpretation, Lib. I, 19.
(Includes commentary on Genesis 2:117)  Book is Moses'
name for the Logos of God in which has been inscribed and engraved
the formation of the world.

Philo, Quod a Deo mittantur somnia, On Dreams, that they are sent
by God, II, 232. A commentary on the two dreams of Jacob, Genesis 28
and 29, and Book II refers to dreams of Joseph, the chief butler, the
chief baker, and Pharaoh, Genesis 37, 40, 41.

Hippolytus, born probably 2nd half of 2nd century A.D. in Rome;
according to legend he was a Roman soldier converted by St. Lawrence.
Died c. 326 in Rome. Steiner's reference is to Hippolytus' The
Refutation of All Heresies, Book V, ch. 3. Otherwise known as the
Philosophumena, Book I was long printed with the works of Origen,
Books 2 and 3 have been lost, and Books 4 through 10 were found in
ms. form at Mount Athos by a Greek scholar in 1842.

Plotinus, 5th Ennead, The Divine Mind, 8th Tractate, On
Intellectual Beauty, 6. Plotinus (204269 A.D.) was born
of Roman parents in Egypt. Studied under Ammonius Saccas at
Alexandria, attempted to go to the East to study philosophy
there, but finally reached Rome where he established himself
as a teacher of philosophy. He attracted a circle of distinguished
pupils, including the Emperor Gallienus and his wife. Not long
before his death, Plotinus collected his writings and arranged
them in a series of 6 Enneads, later edited by his famous pupil,
Porphyry. The Enneads are the most authoritative exposition of Neoplatonism.

Augustine, St., one of the four great Fathers of the Latin
Church, born 354 in Tagaste, Numidia, and died as Bishop of Hippo
during the siege of that city by the Vandals in 430. Steiner's
reference is to Augustine's work, Against the Epistle of Manichaeus
called Fundamental, par. 6.

Adolf Harnack (18511930), well-known German professor
of theology, editor of Works of the Apostolic Fathers (1877), author
of essays on New Testament literature and history, and the Lehrbuch
der Dogmengeschichte, History of Dogma, 1885 (English transl. 7 vols.
189499). In 1892 he published an important controversial work
on the Apostles' Creed, in 1893 a history of early Christianity, in
1900 a very popular work published in English translation as What is
Christianity, (referred to by Rudolf Steiner in this book), and a
number ot other works, some translated into English, among them being
Luke the Physician (1907) and The Sayings of Jesus (1908). Rudolf
Steiner frequently referred to the work of Harnack in his lectures.

Numenius of Apameia in Syria (latter half 2nd century AD), a
Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and forerunner of the Neo-Platonists,
is one of those reputed to have spoken to this effect, calling Plato
an Atticizing Moses.

The Talmud, Hagigah, Chapter II, 14 b: Our Rabbis taught:
Four men entered the Garden (the Paradise) (or, ascended to heaven;)
... the first of them cast a look and died ... The second looked
and became demented ... The third mutilated the shoots. Rabbi Akiba
returned unscathed. (This translation is from The Soncino Talmud,
published by The Soncino Press Ltd., London, and is used by permission
of that organization through S. M. Bloch, Director.)

Ernest Renan (18231892), French philosopher and Orientalist.
During a journey to the Middle East (186061) Renan began work
on his Life of Jesus in Syria, using the New Testament and the Works
of Josephus as his sole books of reference. The book appeared in
June, 1863 and had an immense sale at once. George Eliot and George
Henry Lewes collaborated on the English translation, which was very
popular, and Renan became widely known in the English-speaking world.
Rudolf Steiner made many references to the thought and work of Renan
in his lectures.

Plato, Gorgias, 493 A.
Philo, De specialibus legibus IV, 188: The human mind
(is) ... entombed in a mortal body which may quite properly be called
a sepulchre.
Philo, Legum allegoriarum I, 108: The sould is dead and has been
entombed in the body as in a sepulchre.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (17751854), the
well-known German philosopher and professor at Jena (17981803),
at Würzburg (180306) Munich (180641) and, as a member
of the Academy, at Berlin (184145). His works influenced many
of his contemporaries, and the four volumes of his Berlin lectures,
published posthumously by his sons, have given him immortality:
Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology (publ. 1856), The
Philosophy of Mythology (1857) and The Philosophy of Revelation,
2 vols. (1858). Rudolf Steiner discussed Schelling's contribution
to the development of modern philosophy from many points of view
on a number of occasions, particularly in lectures given between
1900 and 1924.

A tradition exists that similar words were also said to the
Emperor Julian the Apostate, whose interest in Neoplatonism is well
known, and that Aedesius sent Julian to two of his pupils, one of
whom was Maximos.

Jacob Burckhardt (18181897), Swiss writer on art and
professor at Basel and Zuerich. His Die Zeit Constantins der
Grossen, The Time of Constantine the Great, appeared in 1853,
his Der Cicerone in 1855, and his two most famous works, Die
Cultur der Renaissance in Italien, The Culture of the Renaissance
in Italy, and his Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, History
of the Renaissance in Italy, appeared in 1860 and 1867 respectively.
These works have been translated into English, and Burckhardt's
name is well-known in America among students of art history.
Rudolf Steiner made frequent reference to Burckhardt, and in his
own extensive series of lectures on art history and appreciation,
given during World War I Steiner expanded some of the ideas
Burckhardt had advanced.

Whenever Steiner quoted Martin Luther's translation of the Bible,
the corresponding Authorized (King James) Version is given in this
book. However, particularly in his quotations from the Apocalypse,
Steiner's text sometimes coincides with neither the Greek original
nor the Luther Version. In the first instance the present text as
rendered in this book was translated directly from Steiner's German,
and in the second, the Revised Standard Version proved to be nearer
the German.

Philo, De vita contemplativa, About the Contemplative Life, or
the Fourth Book of the Treatise Concerning the Virtues, critically
edited with a defense of its genuineness by F. C. Conybeare, M.A.,
Oxford, 1895. This work is of great interest because it contains
the sole account of an ascetic community known as the Therapeutae
having their home on the shores of Lake Mareotis.

Augustine's Confessions, Book XIII, 38. The Loeb Library
translation runs: We therefore behold these things which thou
hast created, because they are; but they are, because thou seest
them. And we see without, that they are, and within, that they
are good. Another translation also reads: ... And we see without
that they are, and within that they are good.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you
with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear
it, neither yet now are ye able.  I Corinthians 3:12